George Onyejiuwa, Owerri
Former Speaker of Imo State House of Assembly and senator representing Imo North, Chief Benjamin Uwajumogu is fighting the battle of his life to retain his seat in the National Assembly. He speaks about his sored relationship with Governor Rochas Okorocha; the impending Imo governorship election and the chances of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the contest.
The Imo North Senatorial election has been declared inconclusive. What is your reaction?
The election has just been cancelled and rescheduled for a later date because it was characterised by violence and snatching of ballot boxes. The INEC officials, especially the electoral officials were clearly working for the other party in OnuImo Local Government. The majority of the Ad hoc staff and the returning officers to the SPOs, the collation officers were bought over and they were simply entering results anyhow. In Ehime Mbano and Isiala Mbano the entire process was hijacked by politicians of others parties. They took away the electoral officials and nobody saw them until after 24 hours. In my Local Government Ihitte Uboma as collation was going on there was sporadic shootings such that it was impossible for anybody to collate the results properly and that gave them the opportunity to perpetrate criminal acts.
In 2015, you had the problem with the PDP and eventually the Appeal court quashed the election and ordered for a fresh one. Are you sure that you would be able to surmount the opposition this time around?
There is going to be a re-run because the election has just been cancelled but unfortunately the INEC cancelled results from only three Local Government Areas, which is Isiala Mbano, Ehime Mbano, Ihitte Uboma and some wards. But I am confident that if a proper election is conducted I will definitely win.
The APC as a ruling party did not do well in the presidential election as they could not deliver the president in the state. What happened?
The APC is Imo State today is a party that is in dire straits because of the activities of the state governor, Rochas Okorocha who claims to be a member of the APC but at the same time supporting another party using all the state apparatus , the state structure to work against the APC and you can see what happened in the presidential election; the governor had earlier promised to deliver over a million votes to Buhari and the president got miserly 140,000 votes in the state against over the 300, 000 by the opposition. Obviously the APC is in trouble in the state because of the activities of the governor who has sworn that all the APC candidates’ aside the ones who believe in the AA governorship candidate will not be supported by him.
APC needs to be strengthened and that is what we are trying to do. Before the last elections, Governor Rochas Okorocha had obtained a court order which claimed to have declared the state Care Taker Committee of the party headed by Prince Marcellinus Nlemigbo as illegal and even after the National Chairman has forwarded a list of the party agents; INEC did not communicate that to us. So, the election was conducted without the agents of the party and as a result of this Governor Okorocha was able to use his workers masquerading as the party’s agents during the election. You can imagine the situation that we faced while running election without agents at the ward levels and at the various polling units and even at the Local Government level where the collation was done. Even the security agents especially the police worked against us.
It is only in Imo State that the security architecture was not changed and we kept complaining that they have already been compromised by the state governor and now see the result. The governor had before the election not only directed his AA and APC faction not to vote for me but he actually worked against me. He spent money to try to stop me.
What actions have you people taken against the violent situation that marred the election?
We reported to the security, we reported to the INEC and thankfully the INEC listened to us because it was not only the APC. I am sure that the APGA also complained and the same for the PDP and that was what led to the cancellation of the elections in three Local Government Areas and in a couple of wards. Although we have requested the total cancellation of the election because there was no credible conduct of the election anywhere
Don’t you think it would be same during the re-run going by the picture that you have just painted?
Of course they would try to repeat the same thing but this time we are now aware of what their plans are. Secondly, the security agents are also aware of what happened. The INEC office in Isiala Mbano was firebombed in the cause of this election and I am not sure that such thing happened elsewhere in the state and in the South East. Imo North was a hotbed of violence, shooting and crisis and the security agencies are more aware of what happened and even the Federal Government is also aware. The APC as a party is also aware. We believe that before the next election is held some of these things would be taken into consideration.
Saturday would be the governorship and state Assembly elections, don’t you think that the state may become a theatre of war if the security architecture as presently constituted is not changed?
We are praying that the Federal Government will listen to us and change the entire security in the state, because from what happened in Imo North and some other places in the state armed thugs who are being backed had a field day, and it was quite obvious that the Police and the other security agents were compromised. Even some of the INEC officials were compromised. The governor worked against the interest of the APC in Imo North and we have communicated to the leadership of the party. We are taking steps to redress these things.
Why is the governor bent on ensuring that you don’t return to the Senate?
The governor does not want to see anybody in the Senate that would be a ranking member. My returning to the Senate would make me a ranking member and the governor doesn’t want that. So, he is making every effort to ensure that he stops me. And come to think of it, I would be the only ranking member of APC from the state if re-elected but the governor obviously does not want that to happen.
But Governor Okorocha has always said that the South East will produce the Senate President in 2019. How would that happen without a ranking member from the state or zone?
Well, this time Okorocha wants to be the Senate President as a fresher and I don’t know how that is going to work out, and I wish him good luck. But the fact is that nobody plays God. God intervenes in the affairs of men once in a while and I believe that God will do whatever pleases him in this matter. Given what I have achieved within the time that I won the re-run in 2016 the people came out massively to vote but like I said earlier, people were disenfranchised because of the violence instigated by thugs, just to stop me because they know that I am the strongest of the candidates in the Imo North senatorial election. The government’s AA candidate does not stand any chance in the election. So, his best bet is to do everything to ensure that I don’t win. If proper election is conducted I will win because I have achieved a lot within the just two years I have been at the Senate and the records are very clear. The experience I had as a speaker of the Imo State House of Assembly and as a ranking member of the Senate; the Okigwe zone (Imo North) will benefit more.
Since Governor Okorocha is working against the party what are the chances of Senator Hope Uzodinma winning the governorship election on March 9, 2019?
It is going to be a huge fight and I believe that Imo will remain an APC state and the candidate of the APC will do well because he has a good chance of winning the election. I believe that if the rescheduled election in Imo North is conducted; my winning will propel the party in the zone. Our people have seen the unprecedented level of violence unleashed on the state by the government. Imo people have also seen how the governor wants to convert the state into his personal estate and they are determined not to allow that to happen again. With the victory of President Buhari; our people will see the need to have an APC governor in the state who will work together with the president for the benefit of the people of our state. Again, once the security architecture especially the Police and army are changed and the election conducted without violence we will emerge tops and the state government knows this.